“And here is the control center,” explained Pat as she and her parents led Bethany into the room.
“So your technology uses crystals,” observed Bethany.
“It’s the easiest way to channel the innate mana we use to power our magic,” replied Tim. “Now, let’s see if…hang on, something’s up!”
“What is it?” asked Fran.
“Our detection spells have picked something up offshore,” answered Tim. “…It bares the same shape as Tanza!”
“What?!” yelped Pat. “It’s come back?!”
“…Hang on, the mass of the object doesn’t correlate to Tanza’s,” reported Tim. “Something’s not right.”
“We’d better get Pam here,” said Fran. She then created a magic circle and put it into a communications crystal. “Pam, get here now! Readings have picked up something!”
“I hope your defenses are still running,” remarked Bethany.
“Shields are stable,” replied Pat. “But the power level’s…”
“Pat?” asked Bethany.
“It’s all part of the Mana Pools problem. We can’t-.” The door opened behind her and the woman that spoke to the minister arrived. “Pam, thank goodness!” sighed Pat. “Were you chatting up one of the minis-?”
“We’re picking something up?” asked the woman, Pam.
“We think it’s Tanza,” replied Bethany.
“The readings are wrong,” said Pam simply.
“Look, I know the mass doesn’t-!” protested Tim.
“The instrumentation bank is faulty. I must repair it.” Pam then created a magic circle, cloned it, and put all her circles into all the crystals. The crystals stopped glowing.
“Hang on!” protested Pat. “You’ve shut everything down!”
“I must complete the repairs,” replied Pam.
“…Pam, are you all right?” asked Fran.
“Yes, High Monitor,” assured Pam. Bethany and Pat looked at each other. Something just didn’t sit right with them.
“So there we were,” said Opal as she and Yazmyn were patrolling the place, “surrounded by Entroopers, ready for the end, when the Entrooper Commander-.”
“He started monologuing?!” laughed Yazmyn.
“He started monologuing!” confirmed Opal. “He went on about how the universe rightfully belongs to Emperor Entropy, how we’d fail like our predecessors, all that! So Gabi, using her new chakram, took the opportunity to slice his head off, then Pat made us all lighter with her gravity powers while making the Entroopers heavier, then I spun round, whip outstretched, and turned them all to dust! That was how we became Ladies!”
“Awesome! Gotta say, you girls were lucky.”
“Yeah, I’m not sure we would have…hang on…” Opal pointed out a minister, the same minister that hypnotized Pam. “…What’s Minister Terry up to?”
“Terry? Isn’t he supposed to give a speech soon?”
“That WAS the idea,” confirmed Opal. “I think we have a suspect.”
“Well, let’s tail him,” suggested Yazmyn.
Ruby and her group observed the conference welcome ceremony. “And last, but certainly not least,” said the Master of Ceremonies, “the Lord Vice-President with the Delegation from the country of Veritas, led by Delegate Evelyn!”
“We commit ourselves,” said Delegate Evelyn, “to the ideals of the current Magical Limitation Treaty.”
“Well said, Friend Evelyn,” replied the Lord Vice-President. “Please, accept my humblest apologies for any distress the recent tremors may have afforded you. There is categorically no cause for alarm. They are an entirely natural phenomenon of no consequence.”
“That’s what we believe,” Malachite whispered to Ruby and the Angelan Roses.
“I hope you’re right,” remarked Wilma.
Back in the control center, Pam was still fiddling with the control bank. “Pam, are you sure that’s necessary?” asked Pat.
“It IS necessary,” replied Pam.
“Perhaps I can give you a hand?” asked Bethany. “I’m good with machines, I’m sure I can learn how your technology operates.”
“I must…complete the repairs!” insisted Pam.
“Well, on Earth, we have a saying, two heads are-.”
“Leave me ALONE!” Pam then punched Bethany in the face!
“PAM! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” protested Fran.
“That’s enough, Pam!” snarled Tim as he got ready to fight. Pam knocked him aside and was about to plunge something into Bethany’s head! Bethany held her back, then Pat threw Pam off Bethany. Pat then raised her hand and the tool in Pam’s grip fell to the floor, pinning her hand underneath.
“I’ve increased the gravity of that probe,” explained Pat. “Consider her restrained!”
“Woof!” groaned Bethany. “Pat, you pack a wallop!”
“Miss Williams, I cannot apologize enough for-!” said Tim.
“Then don’t,” interrupted Bethany. “I think it’s more important that we see what she was up to.”
“I must…carry out…my instructions!” strained Pam. “I must…please…D-Dame…Petrify! I must…join her…garden of…stone!”
“Dame Petrify?” asked Bethany. “…Is that who’s behind Tanza’s disappearance, hm?” Fran and Tim checked out the instrumentation bank.
“Pam’s wrecked the scanners and altered the shield settings in some way,” said Tim.
“How?” asked Pat.
“They’re jammed on,” explained Tim.
“Pam, were you trying to keep something out…or all of us in?” asked Pat. Pam was still going on about how she must please Dame Petrify.
“Could we put her somewhere soundproofed?” sighed Bethany, annoyed. “We need to think. If we can get the external detectors working…”
“I’m not exactly a repair girl,” sighed Pat. “…But I DO know what parts are what. Bethany, this might be your chance to get a good look at our technology! Have you mastered teammate telepathy?”
“Sure have,” replied Bethany.
“Perfect! I can name the parts and send images of them through your mind, then you send images of what your eyes see so we can guide you along the repairs!”
“All right then!” declared Bethany. Fran and Tim opened the instrumentation bank up and let Bethany into the inner workings.
“All right, we’ll need to reset the relay circuit first,” said Pat as she projected the image of what one is supposed to look like through the telepathic field all Roses share.
“I can see it!” Bethany projected an image of a red relay circuit.
“It’s stuck in the reset position,” said Pat.
“Did she show you a tiny switch?” Fran asked Bethany.
“She did and I can see it,” replied Bethany.
“Flick it back and forth rapidly three times,” directed Fran. Bethany did so.
“It’s green now,” she reported.
“Good, then you can safely rotate the mana-transfer crystal ninety degrees counterclockwise,” said Tim as Pat projected an image through the telepathic field of what such a crystal looks like. Bethany did so, then the instrumentation bank powered on!
“You did it!” cheered Pat.
“Glad I could help!” replied Bethany as she crawled out from the access panel.
“Oh heavens!” gasped Fran.
“What is it, Mom?” asked Pat.
“Right outside the citadel!” replied Fran. “We’re registering 50 life-forms!”
“Right at the least-watched area!” realized Tim. “They’re right inside our shield perimeter, just waiting at the wall!”
“Something’s horribly wrong,” said Bethany. “I think we’ve all been duped by this Dame Petrify.”
“Sh..she entered…the barrier…” whispered Pam with reverence. “I…I obeyed her! Yes!” Then…it happened! Pam’s skin and clothes slowly turned to stone!
“P-Pam?! PAM!” yelped Pat. It was too late, Pam fully turned to stone with a blissful look on her face. “…Sh-She-!”
“Dame Petrify must have had no further use for her,” muttered Bethany. “That must mean she possesses Tanza.”
“This is so screwed up!” groaned Fran. “She must have taken advantage of the Mana Pools’ problem!”
“Are the Mana Pools your source of magic?” asked Bethany.
“They are,” said Pat. “And they’ve been playing up. We’ve had frequent power surges, but they always been within safety tolerances, so no one’s been bothered to fix them.”
“But that’s like ignoring damage to a water heater,” remarked Bethany. “Any more ignoring of the problem and-.”
“We need to work on them somehow, but we need a member of the Lord President’s family to accompany us,” said Pat.
“…The Lord President is called Rosa Morales, yes?” asked Bethany.
“Yes, and I see where you’re going, but Gabi’s preoccupied with-!”
“She’ll be preoccupied with incoming death and destruction unless she helps us!” insisted Bethany. Pat stared at Bethany for a second, then pulled out her Comms Compact.
“Gabi, this is Pat,” she said. “Bethany’s planning on fixing the Mana Pools and, since that’s the Morales Family’s area of expertise-.”
“S-Sorry for interrupting,” said Gabi, “b-but we s-still haven’t found-.” Bethany opened her Comms Compact and joined the call.
“Gabi, this is Bethany,” she interjected. “We just had an encounter with our enemy’s agent. Her name is Dame Petrify and we think she’s the one that’s got Tanza. She turned her agent into stone and the agent let it happen. They’re right between the shield perimeter and the wall. We HAVE to restore the Mana Pools to their natural state of operation.”
“B-But you’re asking me to…to open the pools…to an outsider!” replied Gabi.
“We’re ALL outsiders to the Entroopers, Gabi!” insisted Bethany. “And we’re all going to die unless you give me access!”
“…I’m coming with you,” sighed Gabi. “Pat, c-could you get B-Bethany a suit and m-meet me at the P-Pools’ airlock?”
“We’ll be right there,” replied Pat. “Out.”
“Suit?” asked Bethany when the call ended.
“That much concentrated mana in liquid form generates a lot of heat and energies we barely understand,” explained Pat. “You’ll need a safety suit. And trust me, our Cosmic Rose outfits won’t cut it.”
“Gotcha,” agreed Bethany.